Saturday, December 23, 2023

Euthanasia and assisted suicide contradict Christmas, Bishop Davies warns faithful

The Bishop of Shrewsbury in his Christmas homily is to warn against renewed attempts to change the law to allow doctors to help their patients to commit suicide. 

The Rt Rev. Mark Davies will address at Midnight Mass how the Christian values of mercy and compassion should not be distorted to drive forward a “deadly agenda” that is at odds with the Christian moral inheritance. 

Bishop Davies will say it is “especially sinister” that the euthanasia lobby should exploit the Christmas season to contradict Christian morality.  

The bishop will suggest that changing the law to permit doctors to prescribe lethal cocktails in assisted suicide or administer lethal injections in euthanasia is contrary to the Christian values of the sanctity of every human life and care for the weakest and most vulnerable.  

In his homily, Bishop Davies will remind the congregation in Shrewsbury Cathedral that in contrast Christmas leads society back to the values which dawned with Christ’s birth in Bethlehem “a joy to be shared by the whole people”. 

Bishop Davies will say: “Truths we might too easily take for granted are recalled to every mind and heart by these festive days: the value of every human life; the innate dignity of every human being; compassion for the weakest; peace between men and the charity that we owe to each other.  

“These are values and moral imperatives which were alien and unthinkable to the ancient mind but which we trace back to the cradle of Christ’s dawning light.”   

“Each generation passes through its own dark shadows to return constantly to His light.  It seems especially sinister that the euthanasia lobby should choose this moment of the year to advance its deadly agenda and even use the Christian imperatives of ‘compassion’ and ‘mercy’ to speak of medical killing.  

“Christianity led us to care for the weakest and most vulnerable, euthanasia proposes a new morality where the light of Christ no longer guides us.” 

The Bishop’s stark rejection of euthanasia and assisted suicide, often referred to in the media under the euphemism of “assisted dying”, comes as activists seek to exploit the announcement by Dame Esther Rantzen, a television presenter and foundress of Childline, the anti-bullying and anti-abuse charity, that she has joined Dignitas, the assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland, and might wish to end her life there if treatment for stage four lung cancer fails. 

Her statement led to activists and some politicians suggesting that the 1961 Suicide Act, under which assisted suicide may be punished by up to 14 years in jail, should be abolished or amended so doctors can assist in the suicides of some of their patients without fear of prosecution. 

Cabinet Ministers Michael Gove and Mel Stride suggested that the law should be revisited by the House of Commons, while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer indicated that he may permit parliamentary time for a so-called “assisted dying” bill to be debated. 

Sir Keir said personally be believed “there are grounds for changing the law”.